Read “Repeal Obamacare?” on Page 20 of this week’s text,
“Strategic Healthcare Management: Planning and Execution” and address
the following questions:
1. Why does politics have such an important impact on strategy in the
healthcare sector?
2. Why were healthcare organizations merging under the ACA? Why might these
strategies have needed to be revisited under a Trump administration?
3. How does this case demonstrate the difficulty in only having a
prospective strategy?
In addition to your initial post, make sure your reply to at least two of
your peers and use at least 3 different citations and references in your
responses.
Repeal of Obamacare? Page 20
“The ACA, signed into law in 2010, substantially changed the direction and
strategies of most US healthcare organizations. The US Department of Health
& Human Services was given the responsibility of implementing many of the
provisions that sought to “expand coverage, emphasize prevention, improve the
quality of health care and patient outcomes across health care settings, ensure
patient safety, promote efficiency and accountability, and work toward
high-value health care.” The law instituted healthcare exchanges to facilitate
purchasing insurance and banned lifetime dollar limits and discrimination based
on preexisting conditions (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
2016).
The law was designed to motivate care coordination and integration across
the continuum of care by transitioning to a population health and value-based
care focus. Healthcare organizations responded, among other ways, through
mergers and acquisitions. Physicians merged into mega– group practices.
Pharmaceutical and insurance companies consolidated (Singer 2016). Hospitals
acquired other hospitals, as well as physician practices and insurance
businesses. Providers opened accountable care organizations, which were
established to take capitation that could function next to traditional
fee-for-service models. Healthcare insurers merged to counterbalance the growing
market power of hospitals. In sum, changes happened in and across all sectors
in the healthcare field. Much of the consolidation has been blamed on the ACA,
and in early 2016 these changes seemed inevitable (Gluck 2016).
However, few predicted the election of Donald Trump in the fall of 2016 and
his effect on the direction the healthcare sector has taken. Trump signaled
that on his first day in office he would “work immediately on repealing
Obamacare” (Koronowski 2017). A full or even partial repeal of the ACA would
have significant impact on the strategies of healthcare organizations. Although
we may not know what the repeal means for some time, and the final shape of the
healthcare field under a Trump administration may gradually evolve, most Americans
support coverage guaranteed regardless of preexisting conditions yet oppose a
mandate. The ACA also cut $700 billion from Medicare provider reimbursements,
which will probably not be restored by Trump’s reforms (Kapur 2016). Whatever
the results, the political winds of change have roared through a healthcare
sector that now must review and revise its plans.”
0 comments